Get Herald RSSThe Brown community is invited to visit the Drug Resource Center. The DRC is a new campus office where trained undergraduate volunteers will provide accurate and unbiased answers to questions about drugs. The Center is a result of the combined efforts of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Department of Health Education. Come to room 203 of Faunce House from 3-5 p.m. on any Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Many students are not prepared to make informed decisions about drug use. Even people who have used many different drugs or use drugs on a daily basis often have little scientific information about their effects. People who don't consider themselves drug users may not have given much thought to the amounts of caffeine, tobacco or alcohol they consume. The DRC is for everyone, including the abstinent and the curious.
Current undergraduates tend to know little about drugs, in part because we are members of the D.A.R.E. generation. Many of us remember warnings against drug use delivered by police officers in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education curriculum. President Bush recently declared April 14 "National D.A.R.E. Day." For the past 22 years, D.A.R.E. officers have visited classrooms of fifth-graders to tell them to "Just Say No." Since D.A.R.E.'s message of abstinence is that all drug use is drug abuse, it does little to explain drugs' actual effects.
Now that we D.A.R.E. graduates are attending college, however, we need to know more in order to make healthy decisions. Some people will use drugs regardless of their legal status, so the DRC aims to respond to some of the questions D.A.R.E. left unanswered. Operating under a harm reduction philosophy, DRC volunteers work to minimize the negative impacts of licit and illicit drug use on individuals and the community. Our goal is to provide drug knowledge, not to promote drug use: the DRC will educate visitors on both drugs' effects and the risks associated with them.
All DRC volunteers have attended trainings on harm reduction, drug effects and communication techniques, generously conducted by members of the faculty and staff who see the value of the DRC's mission. So far, all of the volunteers selected for training have had past experience with drug education; pending success, the program will be broadened in the fall. If you think you may be interested in joining our volunteer staff, please visit the DRC.
Our volunteers have also been trained to help visitors navigate the many resources available at the DRC. Depending on the nature of the questions asked, visitors may be directed to a book on drug facts, a Web site on drug policy or a card or pamphlet of information to take home. The DRC has a growing library of reference materials and is always accepting donations. Volunteers may also offer to refer visitors to other on or off-campus treatment or counseling services relevant to their inquiries.
SSDP would like to thank Frances Mantak, director of Health Education, for her bountiful patience and support over the past year as we designed the DRC together. For more information about Brown's chapter of SSDP, please visit http://www.ssdp.org/brown, or for more on our new DRC, go to http://www.drugresourcecenter.org.
E-mail Jesse Stout '07 at his Brown address to get involved and become a volunteer at the DRC.
